Bone marrow transplant or stem cell transplant is a surgical procedure that removes the damaged bone marrow or stem cells and replaces them with a healthy one from a donor. It becomes extremely important when:

• The existing bone marrow cells are damaged or not properly functioning due to leukaemia or another type of blood cancer.
• The immune cells are not regenerating or able to fight cancer.
• The patient is not responding to radiation therapy or chemotherapy.
• The normal functioning of the immune system has to be restored due to high doses of chemotherapy and radiation therapy.
• The patient is suffering from other health conditions that affect the production of bone marrow cells.

Depending on the patient’s conditions, the bone marrow transplantation can be done in the following three ways:

Autologous bone marrow transplant: In this type, the patient is itself the donor. This means that the surgeon will extract stem cells from your body before starting radia- tion therapy or chemotherapy and store them in a freezer Once the therapy is com- pleted, the surgeon will put these back into your body so that they can produce normal blood cells

Allogenic bone marrow transplant In this type, the surgeon will extract the stern cells from a donor The donor can be your relative such as siblings or an unrelated genetically matched donor

Umbilical cord blood transplant During an umbilical blood transplant, the stem cells will be collected from the umbilical cord at the time of childbirth. These stem cells will be tested, typed, and stored for future use

A bone marrow transplant is an effective strategy to make a patient cancer-free. Dr Rakesh Ojha, the director of our Haematology and Bone Marrow Transplant Program at IOSPL is an American board-certified surgeon who provides cutting edge care to patients with blood cancer. With us, you can be assured of the best care with excellent patient outcomes.